Blogs from Mysore, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 4

Geo: 12.314, 76.6759This journey starts in Amritapuri and ends in Mysores 27h later. This is my first long distance travel in India and I am on my own.First, I had to wave goodbye to Chloé. It is thank to her if I feel fine starting this journey, I had a great introduction to India. I jumped into a taxi. I got a good price because he had just dropped someone here and didn't want to go back empty.At the bus station the taxi driver told me ''It's that bus''. So I climb in the designated bus and checked with a passenger ''Is this bus going to Ernakulam?''. Wobble of the head and slight movement of the shoulders and a movement of hand that to me seemed like he was pointing at a seat for me to ... read more

‘’Its not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can be hit and keep moving forward – Rocky Balboa So, after a fairly relaxing time in Kodai, we were off in search of even more downtime in the city of Mysore, home of Ashtanga Yoga. We had booked ourselves into a great little hotel not too far from the centre for a great price and were looking forward to seeing what Mysore had to offer. We were willing to stay here for a few weeks or even a month if we liked the feel of the place and if we could get something good going on with one of the local Yoga places….but with no real plans, we were just going to play this by ear. Our first venture out ... read more

Our second placement weekend was spent in the beautiful city of Mysore, (mistakenly pronounced by Ali as ‘Mee-sore’ much to the amusement of our Indian housemates) a three hour bus ride away from Ashwini. We stayed in a hotel 3km outside the centre claimed by the Lonely Planet as ‘the nicest hostel in all of India’. Not convinced by this statement but if nothing else it definitely has a shot at being the most hilarious. We were staying in the women’s dorm which contained about 20 bunk-beds and at least another 20 mattresses strewn on any available floor surface. The other guests were exclusively Indian, my particular bunk-mate made her irritation at our presence very clearly known-after enquiring of me suspiciously several times ‘why are you here?’, she tried to oust Ali and I to ... read more

We checked into the Chandra Palace Hotel (not as fancy as it sounds) around 8:00 a.m. on the 8th. Although the room was pretty big and fairly nice, we were informed that whoever had told us the price per night was misinformed, and the already overpriced room was actually more expensive than we'd been told. The staff there was also rather cranky, so we decided to stay one night then move to a much cheaper, though slightly smaller and grungier, place the next day. Unfortunately we realized that Mysore isn't the best place for tourist lodging, in that most hotels are filthy, overpriced, loud, and smell like smoke. We managed fine, though. After a post-overnight bus nap, we spent our first afternoon in the city touring Mysore's trademark Maharaja's Palace, once home to the 24th Wadiyar ... read more

For my vocational day in Mysore, three very different visits had been arranged for me. The first of these was to a 90-bed private hospital that is part of an international chain of hospitals providing world-class healthcare. It opened in 2009 and recently achieved accreditation with international standards. A community ethos is an integral value for the hospital; free / concessional clinics are offered every month. Although I have not visited a private hospital in England, the facilities, services, and operational procedures I observed and was informed about were in line with what I would expect and hope to see in any hospital. I was slightly surprised that the hospital had only one ambulance (with access to a back-up). The emergency department was only set up with three beds, though it could accommodate six and could ... read more